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.‘I used everything I could lay my hands on in the fridge and added a delicate mixture of herbs and spices.Sit.’ He poured her a glass of white wine and Julia obediently sat at the kitchen table, trying not to over-relish the sheer pleasure of being waited on by him.How the hell did he manage to look so sexy in front of a cooker? He had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, displaying his muscled forearms, and the slight sheen of perspiration on his face only added to his raw sex appeal.Her nerves began to jump and she hastily swallowed a mouthful of wine.‘Nicola’s very excited about your moving in,’ she said as he ladled food into serving dishes and began bringing them to the table.‘I like to think so.She asked if she could call me Dad.She told me that all her friends have dads and that she has always dreamed of hers.Of me,’ he said proudly, before resuming his clipped voice.‘At least,’ he huffed, to cover the uneven softening in his voice when he had spoken about his daughter, ‘one of you is.’ He twirled spaghetti around a long fork and slid a generous helping onto her plate.Even that slight action delineated the muscles in his forearms.Relaxing was going to be a major feat in his presence.‘Now dig in,’ he commanded, waiting so that he could hear her verdict.‘Very good.’ Their eyes met and he smiled with satisfaction.‘Did I not tell you that cooking is in my blood?’‘I didn’t know whether to believe you or not.You don’t strike me as a very domesticated figure.’‘Perhaps I never met the right woman who could domesticate me,’ he drawled, his black eyes watching her steadily as he twirled some spaghetti around his fork.‘Not even Caroline?’ She had been itching to bring up the subject of his ex-wife and get him to explain his mysterious insinuation that he had only thought he had been in love with her.‘I wondered when you would get back to that,’ Riccardo said.‘I’m just making conversation, Riccardo.If you don’t want to talk about it, then don’t.It’s all the same to me.’‘Caroline never managed to domesticate me, no.I look back now, and perhaps I can say in all honesty that she tried.Tried and failed.’ He thought of his ex-wife and realised that for the first time he was glad that she had found happiness with another man.She had deserved it.‘I wasn’t open to making sacrifices,’ he murmured, more to himself than to his rapt audience, ‘and, of course, making sacrifices is what a good marriage is all about.I found her twittering around me irritating after a while.I also found it hard to conceal my irritation.’‘Which is why she became more and more withdrawn,’ Julia pointed out softly.‘Yes, she did.And the more withdrawn she became, the more irritated and impatient I became.In the end, it was a vicious circle.We barely spoke, and when we did we never seemed to get anywhere with the conversations.’ He shrugged and sighed.‘Two people who started out with the best of intentions and just came unstuck somewhere along the way.But that was no reason for her to keep Nicola a secret from me.’‘No, no, it wasn’t,’ Julia agreed, and he shot her a brooding look from under his lashes.‘You were in on the scheme.How can you sit there and calmly agree with me?’‘I was not in on the scheme,’ Julia retorted, closing her fork and spoon on her empty plate and taking a sip of wine.‘You seem to think that I was living here and party to every little decision Caroline and Martin made.I wasn’t.I was renting my own flat on the other side of town and, whilst I didn’t agree with their decision to keep you in the dark about your daughter, I didn’t feel there was much that I could do, and I suppose I had my own life to think about.’‘You had no opinions on me?’‘I didn’t know you, Riccardo! I only knew you from what Caroline told me and I was too busy with my own life to become involved in what was going on in my brother’s! When they died…’ Julia’s voice faltered ‘…I realised that I had to make a decision and I decided to do what I had always thought they should have done.I decided to get in touch with you.’‘And are you pleased that you did?’Julia picked up the faintest, fleeting shadow of innuendo in his question.He was referring to far more than whether she was pleased that Nicola now had contact with her real father.Or so she imagined.He toyed with some pasta on his fork and looked at her with a darkly inscrutable expression.‘Of course I am,’ she answered jumpily.‘Nicola deserves to know you and she always has, even if she was denied the chance.I can see that you’ll make a wonderful father.You’re kind and thoughtful with her, and caring…’ Her words were drying up in her throat as he continued to watch her, his dark eyes not once straying from her face, which was getting pinker by the minute.‘And if we leave Nicola out of the equation,’ he said softly, ‘are you still pleased that you contacted me?’‘Well…I…it’s always nice to get to know different people…’ Julia said weakly.‘Because I am.’‘You are?’ She could only give in to her fascinated trance.‘I am.When we first met, I told you that you weren’t my type of woman.I was wrong.You are very much my type of woman.’ He swallowed a mouthful of wine as he appraised her flustered face.‘I made love to you once and I intend to make love to you again.Because I still want you and that’s why your Roger stockbroker will not be calling you and neither will you be calling him.’ His voice was perfectly calm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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